The invention relates to a continuous casting plant having a mould, which can be inserted in a frame-shaped lifting table, and a strand guide means following the mould. A part of the strand guide means neighbouring the mould is surrounded by a carrying frame and is installable and removable therewith, together with the mould, into and out of the continuous casting plant.
In continuous casting plants, the parts which are subjected to the greatest thermal wear and thus have to be exchanged most frequently, are the mould and the part of the strand guide means following the mould. Therefore, it is desirable to be able to remove these parts quickly and easily in case of damage and to exchange them for new parts. In particular, when the strand breaks through, a quick exchange of the parts is of special importance and furthermore it is advantageous if no manipulations by hand need be carried out in the vicinity of the breakthrough area, which area is usually slightly below the mould.
From Austrian Pat. No. 323,920 it is known to connect the part of the strand guide following the mould with the lifting table by means of coupling elements so as to permit a mutual removal of these parts, i.e. a perpendicularly upward lifting of the unit formed by the mould, the lifting table and the strand guide part in order that they may be taken out of the plant. With this arrangement it is a disadvantage that prior to removal of this unit the coupling elements must be brought into engagement with one another and the water supply, as well as the reciprocating drive for the mould, must be detached from the lifting table. This operation requires manipulations by hand and hampers a quick removal or exchange of this unit. A further disadvantage consists in that the unit to be removed includes the lifting table, so it is heavy and bulky and storing is costly. However the lifting table, which compared to the mould is subjected to comparatively little wear, is not damaged in most cases and does not need to be exchanged.
From German Offenlegungsschrift No. 1,957,689 it is furthermore known to arrange the strand guide part neighbouring the mould within a frame which serves as a carrier for the mould lifting table with the mould. In order to remove the mould together with the strand guide part neighbouring the mould, in this plant the lifting table also has to be removed, and thus this construction also has the above-described disadvantages.